ZHENGZHOU, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The first squad of the ninth peacekeeping contingent assigned for an eight-month United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Sudan departed on Tuesday.

The 105 member squad is mainly comprised of engineers, guards and medical staff from the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Jinan Military Area Command, which has participated in the Sudan peacekeeping mission four times.

The second squad of 120 officers and soldiers will leave for the African country in late December.

Their duties will include constructing bridges and roads, repairing airports, and building fortifications, and will be the first long-term Chinese peacekeeping mission since Sudan in 2007.

Li Songfeng, political commissar of the contingent, said the squads have enhanced emergency defense training, including light weapons, individual soldier tactics, security alert and dealing with camp attacks.

According to the figures given by the peacekeeping affairs office of the Ministry of National Defense, China has a total of 13 peacekeeping contingents with nearly 2,000 officers and soldiers in 10 UN missions.